Let’s hope the newly named White House Counsel, Donald McGahn, is not Trump’s whole answer to concerns of conflict-of-interest as his business interests overlap with his governance. Because McGahn is a totally partisan politico, more like a consiglieri to the Godfather than a source of sound ethical counsel.

Trump’s White House Counsel has many responsibilities, but none higher than giving salutary in-house ethics advice. Perhaps the most famous one in history was President Nixon’s White House Counsel, John W. Dean. Initially, Dean helped with the Watergate cover-up.

But there came a time when he warned Nixon that Watergate was a cancer on the Presidency. He came clean with Congress and the prosecutors. Since then he has become a widely respected author and commentator. One can be Dean’s type and at some point go straight and tell the President what he should do to be honest. Or, one can be McGahn’s type.

McGahn started out in Patton Boggs, largely considered a political lobby shop (albeit a capable one). There was an early tie to Trump: McGahn’s uncle worked for Trump for many years. Patrick “Paddy” McGahn was a local power broker and lawyer, who helped Trump cut deals that paved the way for him to open his Atlantic City casinos.

In 1999-2008, Donald McGahn served as in-house counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House Republican campaign arm. This was at the time that the notorious Tom DeLay ramrodded the partisan House Republican conference.

President George W. Bush named him as chair of the Federal Election Commission in 2008. To the Republicans controlling election policy at that time, the goal of their commissioners in the FEC was to render reform as close to nil as possible. (It should be remembered that this was before the Supreme Court decisions hobbled campaign finance law.)

At the FEC, public interest groups and Democrats accused McGahn of steering the agency into an era of gridlock. McGahn led three Republicans, half the Commission, to block efforts by advocacy groups aiming to reduce the influence of money in politics. In fact, McGahn himself is credited as having played a crucial role in loosening regulation on campaign spending.

McGahn worked with the Koch Brothers’ network – namely, “Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce.” In 2012, the organization raised $256 million. It has given grants worth a total of $236 million to right-wing political groups like the Tea Party.

“Freedom Partners” made a grant of $115 million to another Koch organ, the “Center to Protect Patient Rights.” This called itself a “social welfare” organization (which gets favorable legal treatment) although it allegedly ran massive political attack ads in midterm elections -- perhaps done as "issue ads" to evade the law.

Oh, and then he joined the Trump campaign. The Wall Street Journal comments, “He’s one of a growing number of people with ties to the Kochs to join Trump’s administration.”

Trump seemed at one point to say he was going to change Washington. Trump says in a release that “Don [McGahn] has a brilliant legal mind, excellent character and a deep understanding of constitutional law.”

The press has been laying out Trump’s extensive and massive conflicts of interest and the inadequacy of the supposed in-family “blind trust” in which Trump turns the daily management of his business empire to his children. In theory, the White House Counsel would nail down the ethics issues and tighten up the protections. McGahn, in theory, would do that.